CofFEE Employment Vulnerability Index - Second Edition

Introducing the EVI

The Centre of Full Employment and Equity has developed the Employment Vulnerability Index (EVI) for small regions across Australia. The EVI is a collaboration between Professors William Mitchell (CofFEE) and Scott Baum (Griffith University).

The Employment Vulnerability Index is an indicator that identifies the medium-sized areas that have higher proportions of the types of jobs thought to be most at risk when economic activity declines. The construction of the EVI is explained in the EVI Technical Report (see link below).

The First Edition of the EVI was first calculated using the 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing geography with the suburb as the unit of focus.

In the most recent Census, the Australian Bureau of Census (ABS) introduced a new geography and defined Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) areas, which are closely aligned with suburbs. The ABS define the SA2s as "a general-purpose medium-sized area built from whole SA1s. Their aim is to represent a community that interacts together socially and economically".

The Second Edition EVI (EVI 2.0) is now calculated for SA2s. The EVI 1.0 has been recomputed for the SA2 geographic boundaries to allow us to track changes since 2006.

The EVI divides SA2s into four categories depending on its EVI score:

EVI risk category

Red alert - High risk

more than 1 standard deviation above mean

Amber alert - Medium high risk

less than 1 standard deviation above mean

Medium low risk

less than 1 standard deviation below mean

Low risk

more than 1 standard deviation below mean

It should be noted that the underlying modelling used to compute the EVI takes into account both suburb and individual characteristics. As a result, any one person in a Red alert suburb may have little risk of job loss while any one person in a Low risk suburb might, in fact, be very vulnerable to job loss. But in aggregate, we expect the job losses to fall predominantly in the Red and Amber alert suburbs.

View EVI tables by City

Please select a city that you are interested in and choose the way you want the data ordered in the table that is generated. All the suburbs in the city you select will then be displayed.

Please choose the city

Please choose the ordering

EVI Report - November 20, 2013

You can download the Final EVI Report which includes an explanation of the methodology used to calculate the EVI, commentary and the major policy recommendations.

Media Kit for Journalists

Download the EVI Press Package 2013 - which provides a simple introduction to the EVI and a full list of Red Alert localities for Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan regions and breaks the list into existing and emerging disadvantage localities.

EVI 1.0 - First Edition

The First Edition EVI is computed using the 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics Census of Population and Housing Data.

It is computed for Capital Cities (2593 metropolitan suburbs) and the suburbs located in the Australian Bureau of Statistics non-Metropolitan regional centres with more than 20,000 residents. In some cases this does not include suburbs in outer areas of regional cities as they are not included as part of the ABS’s urban centre categorisation.

The results cover over 75 per cent of the total Australian population which reflect the high degree of urbanisation in Australia.

The EVI divides suburbs into four categories depending on its EVI score:

EVI risk category

% of Total Suburbs

Red alert - High risk

15.2%

Amber alert - Medium high risk

27.3%

Medium low risk

39.6%

Low risk

17.9%

It should be noted that the underlying modelling used to compute the EVI takes into account both suburb and individual characteristics. As a result, any one person in a Red alert suburb may have little risk of job loss while any one person in a Low risk suburb might, in fact, be very vulnerable to job loss. But in aggregate, we expect the job losses to fall predominantly in the Red and Amber alert suburbs.

To examine the data for the suburbs you are interested in please select from the options available below.

EVI Report

You can download the Final EVI Report which includes an explanation of the methodology used to calculate the EVI; city by city commentary; tables, maps and statistics; and the major policy recommendations. [Report updated: Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - 15:01 - minor changes to Appendix tables].

View EVI tables by City

Please select a city that you are interested in and choose the way you want the data ordered in the table that is generated. All the suburbs in the city you select will then be displayed.

Please choose the city

Please choose the ordering

Employment Vulnerability Maps - Slideshows

In the coming weeks we will present more complete maps with animated (drill-down) features and zoom properties. At present we provide slideshows for all the suburbs included in the EVI assessment.

CofFEE in partnership with the ACTU and the St Vincent de Paul Society will be staging a workshop to mark the 70th Anniversary of the White Paper on Full Employment. The event will be held in Sydney on Saturday
May 30, 2015 from 13:00 to 17:00.

The workshop will also incorporate the 15th Path to Full Employment Conference/20th National Unemployment Conference.